Welcome

Dear Future Pediatricians:

As Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and as Chief of Pediatrics at Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen, I am delighted with your inquiry into our Residency Training Program. Our Department is able to offer each house officer the unique opportunity to serve not just the community of Burlington, but the entire state of Vermont and a large part of upstate New York. Similarly, the physicians throughout our state are extremely receptive to involvement in your training and, as your will learn;pediatric rotations in rural settings throughout the state are one of the strengths of our training program.

Our incredibly talented and nationally recognized faculty, who have come from all over the country, have the same vision as I do, in that they view our Department as a focal point for designing future models for both academic subspecialty as well as generalist care. We also consider ourselves a children's hospital "without walls" as we provide comprehensive coordinated care to children and families that is truly child-friendly and family-centered.

Needless to say, you can see how excited I am and only hope that you can begin to sense that excitement as you review our materials. The residency program has been and will continue to be a major strength and important priority for our Department and has been a key reason why the University of Vermont College of Medicine has named us Department of the Year three out of the past six years (and runner-up the other three years).

As you will note after reviewing our Web site, the Residency Training Program is designed to provide you with a broad based general pediatric educational perspective and therefore allow you to be extremely well prepared for whatever your career goals might be, ranging from a competitive academic fellowship to an equally competitive place in a community practice. In addition, we focus a lot of attention on developing teaching, research and advocacy skills in our house staff so that house staff are prepared to be pediatric leaders as we enter the 21st century. As Chairman, I am committed to making sure that our residency program meets each house officer's particular goals and objectives in training. My background as a generalist allows me to continue to practice hospitalist and primary care which brings me in close contact with each of our house officers on a daily basis, something that I enjoy doing and view as a priority in regard to my own job description.

The rest of the Department and I look forward to meeting you should you have the opportunity to visit our program.

Sincerely,

Lewis R. First, M.D.
Professor and Chair